The year 2015, has so far brought success for Comcast Corp.CMCSA owned Universal Pictures. After blockbuster movies like "Fifty Shades of Grey" and "Furious 7" , the latest release "Jurassic World" is likely to set the cash register ringing. Box-office estimates hint at around $125 million of collections from the movie's first weekend.
"Jurassic World" has released in 4,273 theatres across 67 countries. In addition to U.S., the movie is set to release in major international markets such as China, Mexico, the U.K., Brazil, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Russia. Notably, the production cost of the movie is approximately $150 million.
In Apr 2015, Universal Pictures released its super hit movie "Furious 7" which so far collected more than $1.51 billion globally. The project had a production budget of around $250 million. The movie, which was released in the Easter weekend, was the highest opening week box-office grosser made by any movie in the month of April in the U.S.
In Feb 2015, Universal Pictures had tasted another box-office success with "Fifty Shades of Grey" , which generated $85 million in the very first week. This much-controversial flick has garnered more than $566 million at the box-office. Interestingly, the movie's production cost was just a little over $40 million.
Having acquired the entire stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co. GE , Comcast is leaving no stone unturned to revamp Universal Pictures amid strong competition. In 2014, revenues from the Filmed Entertainment segment of NBC Universal declined 8.2% year-over-year to $5 billion, reflecting lower theatrical and home entertainment revenues. The box-office success of "Fifty Shades of Grey" and "Furious 7" and the high potential of "Jurassic World" will likely help NBC Universal regain its theatrical market share in 2015.
In a separate development, in Apr 2015, Comcast terminated its bid to acquire Time Warner Cable Inc. TWC owing to strong reservation expressed by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice against the deal. Consequently, Comcast also abandoned its proposed customer swap deal with Charter Communications Inc. CHTR as it was hinged on the success of the first deal.
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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
